I was sold the wrong kind of tube lights at Home Depot. I asked for help and showed them my 32 watt 4 foot fluorescent tube that was burnt out and the guy sold me a 10 pack of LED tube lights.
I tried them in one of the fixtures and of course they did not work and now that fixture doesn't work. The other fixture is working fine. I got 4 brand new fluorescent tubes this morning.
I double checked and the bulbs in the bad fixture are good.
Could the LED bulbs had burnt out something in the fixture?
I doubt the LEDs had anything to do with damaging the fixture. They draw little power, more likely the fixture had a bad ballast or other problem. Why not replace the whole fixture with an LED one?
If your new bulbs are the "ballast bypass" type, you need to remove the ballast and wire power directly to the bulbs. Some bulbs are powered at one end and some are powered H to one end and N to the other end.
As a side note, I just bought some ballast bypass LED tubes that can be powered in any way. I would really like to see the schematic of the inside LED driver to see how they do that, as the external wiring diagram show just about every conceivable wiring configuration.
I suppose it didnt' work well before you bought the new light, so did it then not work at all or did it flicker?
Did you put the old bulb back? If it flickered before, did it flicker then?
There is a lesson that applies to much bigger things than hardware: Check what you're sold to make sure it's what you want.
A pharmacy once made an automated call to me to tell me my prescription was ready (as they often had before) and they gave me an antibiotic that I had gotten from them once a year or two ago, but which I had no need for then. The same pharmacy twice sold me atavan, lorezepan, which I needed to get through an MRI, in a dose twice what was ordered. I noticed only after I was verrry sleepy after the second one, and I paid attention** and the third time they sold me the right pill. (3 attempts to get the MRI). **In order to catch them, because I'd swallowed the first two.
The antibiotic above came later and its itentity was marked right on the bottle, but the other two pills did't match their bottle. Since then if the pill isn't wrapped at the factory, I look it up online, with google images, to see if its image matches what I'm supposed to take. This isn't easy sometimes because some pills come in as many as 8 shapes/sizes/colors.
But you should also put in the bad bulb to see if it works worse than before putting in the wrong bulb.
I defer to other poeple on this, though my guess is No.
I can't remember if it flickered or not. I'm pretty sure it was flickering which is why I think putting in the LED light somehow broke the fixture. The other fixture was flickering and the lights were exactly the same age so it makes sense that they were going bad around the same time.
I put new bulbs in but I tested the new bulbs in the other identical fixture and they work in that fixture.
I suggested a new LED fixture. Another poster suggested the retrofit LED bulbs where you wire them into the AC, eliminate the ballast. I'd say one of those is your best option. Then the electrical stuff there doesn't matter anymore.
This is a case where you are going to have to read the instructions. Hopefully the bulbs came with instructions. Normally LED bulbs do require some re-wiring of the fixture. You bypass the ballast and supply power at one end.
Wrong. The LED tubes sold by Home Despot do NOT require rewiring - but they DO require a functioning ballast. The fixture failed to light the original tubes because the ballast was weak. Bad tubes can accellerate ballast failure and bad ballasts can accellerate tube failure.
Now, if you only needed 2 tubes and you let the 'droid sell you a case of 10, there is definitely some "ballast" involved above your shoulders as well - - - - - - They DO sell pakages of 2.
Home Depot, and the other marketers, sell _two different_ types of LED drop-in replacement tubes.
One type will, in fact, work with the legacy ballast so doesn't require rewiring [a].
The others operate off (in this country...) 120VAC.
To use the second type you have to bypass/remove the ballasts and hook up the 120V wiring directly to the doghouses.
I suspect the original poster got the wrong type...
Someone here pointed out that there was a third type of tube that somehow or other could be used with both the ballasted fixtures and the directly wired ones. I've never seen them but hey, it's possible.
I guess so, given that he was having problems with the existing one and wasn't sure of what was wrong. But I can see someone starting there, instead of pulling the fixture apart to rewire it. Me, I'd go with a new LED fixture, unless there is some good reason not to.
Yep, all kinds of LED tubes. I replaced some about 2 months ago. The ones I bought were for use without the ballast. I cut the wires to it and just used one end of the LED tube connected to the 2 wires of the AC line comming in. The other end was not used in this installation.
Some tubes just go in without any rewiring and the origional balast must be good.
I do believe there is the 3 rd type,but did not look for it as all I wanted to do was to replace the tubes and not use a ballast which may or may not have been bad at this time.
Here in Canada Home Despot only sells the "direct fit" units that don't require rewiring. They only sell ONE 10-pack of 4 foot tubes in the USA. It is from Philips - part# Model# 472910 which REQUIRES a functional instant start T8 ballast.
I should have said THOSE LED tubes sold by Home Dspot in the USA do not require rewiring.
They also sell, in the USA, a "retrofit kit" Model# 54296168 that contains the required tombstones etc - made to replace T12 tubes bypassing the ballast. Not sold in Canada because they are not legal here.''
In the USA you can buy single and dual tube packs of both direct fit and ballast bypass tubes.
Only ONE ten pac though - which is what the OP bpught and is what we were talking about - - - - -
The OP said he purchased the 10 pac from Home Despot. They only list one 1 10pac - and it is DIRECT FIT and requires a functional T8 instant start ballast.
Up here if the ballast is shot you are cheaper tp buy an LED replacement fixture in most cases. Direct wire (ballast bypass) are not legal to install here.
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